


Bruises

by notsafeforowls



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Bruises, Gen, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-19 20:20:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19363540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notsafeforowls/pseuds/notsafeforowls
Summary: It's hours later when Nate notices the bruises.





	Bruises

**Author's Note:**

> For the bruises square of my Bad Things Happen Bingo card.

Nate's halfway through getting dressed  in the  Waverider's  tiny, cramped bathroom when he catches sight of his own reflection for the first time since they got back from  Heyworld . It's been a long night – dealing with logistics and  creatures and  then Charlie trying to turn the party into a drinking competition – so he's not surprised by  how tired he looks, or the dark circles under his eyes from everything that's happened since his dad’s death. He's not even surprised by the bruises around his sides, and probably on his back, from where his costume  must have dug  in when he'd been on the ground at  Heyworld .

And maybe people have made a few pointed comments about him going to see Gideon to get ' _ fixed up _ ' the same way they do when Sara comes back with a bloody nose or Mick comes back with  injuries  that he half-heartedly  bandages while someone complains.

But the sight of the bruises across his throat and on the sides of his neck still shock Nate. 

T hey've come up ugly and purple, standing out against his skin much darker than he expected.  And right there, he can see the individual finger marks where  Neron crushed his throat and choked the life out of him.  Thumb on one side. Three fingers on the other.

And suddenly  Nate 's back there, everything around him blurring as  Neron's  fingers tighten around his neck and all he can think is  _ don't steel up, don't steel up, steel up and they're all dead _ _ , all of your friends are dead and the world is going to end. _  It hurts, oh god, it hurts, and  he can't breathe—

He can't breathe.

Fear twists in the pit of Nate's stomach.  Neron's  gone, surely he can't be doing this, he can't be choking him all over again when he’s not even in hell, John finished him off.  Unless John was wrong. Unless  Neron’s _ back _ .

Gideon says something, but Nate can't make it out as he falls to his knees. He's going to die. He's going to die all over again, in the damn bathroom, less than a day after he died the first time, and the last thing he's going to have said to anyone was asking  Behrad  if he’d recorded his celebratory karaoke with Charlie.

The hand on his shoulder, pulling him away from the sink, surprises him.  So does the hand prying his own away from his throat.

“Pretty, look at me.” Mick presses  one of his hands  back against the  sink , even as  Nate tries to get  Neron's  invisible hands off of him.  “Nate!”

Gideon's still talking, saying something about a panic attack and asking if  they need her to alert any of the other team members  and—

“Shut up and close the door, I've got it!” Mick snaps. “Come on, Pretty, I know you missed it, but everyone with an internet connection has seen the video, you can get Gideon to pull it up for you. He’s dead, you’re alive, end of, so stop trying to rip your throat out.”

Neron's  gone, yes. Worse than dead. Not even around anymore. But the marks he left behind are still all over Nate.

Mick keeps talking, something  about  Constantine and Nora having put up anti-demon 'crap' while everyone else was drinking.  It's kind of funny because it sounds like he's desperately searching for something, anything to say to Nate, especially when he gets to the part about Behrad wanting to invite the creatures from  Heyworld  to a weekly karaoke night.

“Can you believe that? And he’s trying to blackmail me into going – I knew I shouldn’t have given him that early copy for his birthday, but you said it was a good idea.”

It's easier to breathe now, but Nate's not entirely sure that's a good thing because it takes him about three seconds to realise that he’s gone from a panic attack to  _ crying _ . He's not even sure what he's crying about, really. Maybe the whole dying thing. Maybe the fact that  Neron  also killed his dad, and now he's wondering if  Neron  killed him the same way.  They hadn’t done an autopsy, and Nate can’t remember if there were bruises or not.

It hurts,  even breathing hurts,  and Nate’s not entirely sure if the pain’s entirely from the bruises, or if some of it’s in his head.

“ You can go,” Nate says  when Mick drops his hands like Nate's burning him now that Nate's no longer panicking and has moved on to the messy, emotional stage. “You don't have to stay.”

Mick sure as hell looks like he  _ wants _  to go. But instead he says, “It’s fine,” like sitting on the bathroom floor with your teammate while he's having a breakdown isn't his idea of hell. 

Like he isn’t flexing his hands like he hurt himself stopping Nate from trying to get those non-existent hands off of him. As he lifts one hand, Nate can see marks and scratches between the end of his sleeve and the top of his glove. There’s already blood and Nate’s sure there will be bruises later on.

“You’re bleeding.” 

“It’s nothing.” Mick tugs down his sleeve with his other hand before he nudges at Nate’s chin.

Nate’s so surprised that he lets Mick tilt his head back. Lets him run his gloved hand across the bruises and new scratches on his neck , surprisingly gentle.

“You should get those  fixed ,” Mick says before he takes his hands away, and Nate’s not sure if he’s talking about the bruises or the scratches. 

Probably the scratches. The rest of the team will ask questions about them.  His own hands are covered in scratches as well. There are going to be new bruises that he’s going to need to get Gideon to fix before, from him trying to get those non-existent hands off of him, or from Mick trying to get him to stop clawing at his own throat. Probably both.

“Did you hear me?”

Nate nods, looking down to  his clenched fists, one clutching at his pyjama pants, the other with such a tight grip on Mick’s shirt that his knuckles have gone white and his hand is starting to hurt. He’s not sure he’ll be able to let go if Mick asks him to. He’s not sure if Mick is going to make him.

“I died,” Nate whispers as Mick stretches until he can reach one of the bottles of antiseptic that’s kept in the closest drawer. “I didn’t remember at first, you know? I just remembered that it had happened, but I keep thinking about how it happened.”

He swallows as Mick pours some of the antiseptic on a cotton pad -- the type that he thinks that Sara uses whenever she has to use nail polish for a mission (and complains because with all the tech on the Waverider, she still has to do her makeup herself) -- but he tilts his head back all the same, to give Mick access to the scratches again.

“You don’t need to do that.” Nate doesn’t move, though. He focuses on the stinging swipe and the dull pain whenever Mick presses a little too hard on one of the bruises.

Mick grunts. “You’re not going to do it.”

“I don’t think I  _ can _ .” He lets out a desperate little laugh at that, because it  _ is _  funny, isn’t it? Nate’s not even sure he’ll be able to touch his throat without thinking about  Neron’s  hands ( _ Ray’s _  hands, a traitorous little voice whispers) on it. And it’s not as if he’s a stranger to bruises, either. He’d been a haemophiliac until the serum. But those had been different. Other than the mess Shane had made of his face that one time – and, really, his broken nose had been more of a concern – they'd been because of a minor bump, or a spontaneous bleed. Not violence.

Not someone killing him.

He waits until Mick’s finished cleaning him up before he tries it. And Nate tries to ignore the way that Mick tenses the second he raises his hands, as if he’s getting ready to stop Nate if he tries something. Breathing slowly, he goes right for the bruising on the right side, where it hurts the most. The antiseptic is still wet across the scratches and it only takes Nate a second to find the exact spot he’s looking for, right under one of the worst scratches. He touches it lightly, barely enough to make the bruise hurt, sudden and sharp.

Nate shudders.


End file.
